Band of Blades vs Call of Cthulhu
Compare Band of Blades and Call of Cthulhu side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Band of Blades | Call of Cthulhu | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Horror | Horror, Modern |
| Play Style | Narrative, Fiction-First, Playbook-Driven, Dark Fantasy, Grimdark, Horror, Mission-Based, Faction Play, Combat-Heavy, Deadly, Survival, Tactical, Resource Management, GM-Friendly | Investigation, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roleplay-Heavy, Mystery, Horror, Corruption, Skill-Based |
| Core Mechanic | Forged in the Dark — roll a d6 dice pool equal to your action rating and read the highest die: 6 is a full success, 4–5 is a partial success with consequences, 1–3 is a bad outcome. Position (controlled, risky, desperate) sets the stakes, and players spend stress to resist consequences. Play alternates between a mission phase (specialists and rank-and-file Legionnaires execute one primary and one secondary mission) and a campaign phase, where each player runs a permanent Legion Role — Commander, Marshal, Quartermaster, Spymaster, or Lorekeeper — making strategic decisions about routes, supply, intel, and personnel as the army retreats toward Skydagger Keep. | Roll d100 equal to or under your skill percentage. Success tiers at half (Hard) and one-fifth (Extreme) of the skill value. Bonus and penalty dice adjust the tens digit. Failed rolls can be pushed for a second attempt at greater risk. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d100 |
| Complexity | High | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | High |
| License | Forged in the Dark | Chaosium Fan Material Policy |
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Evil Hat Productions / Off Guard Games | Chaosium |
| Year | 2019 | 2014 |
| Best For | Groups who want a campaign-length military fantasy where the Legion as a whole is the protagonist — character death is expected, players cycle through different soldiers each mission, and strategic decisions about routes, supply, and intel are split across the table rather than held by the GM. | Investigation-driven horror where combat is deadly and sanity is fragile. Great for one-shots. |
| Highlights | Players rotate through Specialist, Soldier, and Rookie playbooks across missions rather than playing fixed characters, so attrition lands without ending personal arcs — the Legion endures even when individual soldiers fall. Each player also holds a permanent Legion Role that drives the campaign phase, splitting army-management decisions across the table instead of leaving them with the GM. Time and Pressure clocks turn the campaign into a race against the Cinder King — advancing toward Skydagger Keep burns time, but lingering builds undead pressure that escalates the difficulty and lethality of future missions. | Sanity system mechanically reinforces horror tone. Intuitive percentile skill system with tiered success levels. One of the largest published scenario libraries in the hobby. |
| Considerations | The campaign phase (mission generation, spy deployments, supply, advance roll, Lorekeeper annals) takes substantial time between missions and only works if every player engages with their Role. Building a deep personal arc for a single Legionnaire is structurally difficult because characters rotate between missions — emotional investment lives with the Legion rather than any one soldier. The campaign is built around a single fixed arc ending at Skydagger Keep, with a defined map, locations, and Chosen/Broken roster — there is no open-ended sandbox mode, and a full campaign runs 12–20 sessions. | Chase rules add complexity with limited payoff, 46-skill list requires point allocation across multiple categories, sanity spiral can remove player agency in extended campaigns |